What do Politics, Cognitive Dissonance, and Eusapia Palladino Have in Common?

Truth is the sublime convergence of history and reality.

By Rich Kozlovich  

Recently I came across this article, When Marie and Pierre Curie Investigated a Psychic Medium, which I found interesting because I knew about this embrace of Spiritism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was a very real phenomenon.   I also knew it was embraced by many very prominent people, including scientists, most of whom were likely adherents of Darwin's evolutionary theories, which he published in his book Origin of Species in 1859, which I brilliantly refute here. 

First, I don't believe there really are true atheists.  There are intellectual atheists, but underneath all that is a foundational/emotional belief in something larger and more powerful than just the physical world.  Why? Because we're designed to believe!  It's part of our genetic core.  Does everyone really find this to be all that extraordinary? Anthropologists have noted that in every culture in the world, and in all of human history, religion, the belief in higher powers, has played an important role in people’s lives.  And it's clear this embrace of Spiritism by scientists proves that.   They, just like everyone else, fear finality!

There was one prominent atheist, Antony Flew, who claimed at the end of his life he was now a believer. Why?  Could it be "there are no atheists in foxholes"? Of course the explanation by atheists was he had lost his mind.  Yet even Albert Einstein, who was not a religious person in any sense, and absolutely rejected the idea of a personal God, also rejected the idea of atheism.   He felt it defied logic.

For the believers among my readers the explanation is simple.  We're designed to believe. For the non-believers among my readers the explanation is simple also. There is no other logical explanation!

One of the most successful mediums of that era was a lady named Eusapia Palladino, and she was impressive.  However, she was caught and exposed over and over again as a fraud.

 "Magicians such as Harry Houdini and Joseph Rinn have claimed all her feats were conjuring tricks. According to Houdini "Palladino cheated at Cambridge, she cheated in l'Aguélas, and she cheated in New York and yet each time that she was caught cheating the Spiritualists upheld her, excused her, and forgave her. Truly their logic sometimes borders on the humorous."

Okay, so what does this have to do with politics, and more importantly geopolitics? Everything!  I'll tell you what, we'll come back to that.

On our domestic scene we're expected to believe Joe Biden was legitimately elected President of the United States, irrespective of the massive amount of evidence he was elected via voter fraud, and those of us who stated that from the beginning were called Flat Earther conspiracy nuts.   But time and truth are on the same side, and more states are having to admit to massive levels of voter fraud are showing up.  And the reaction from leftists and those in the media who arrogantly and smugly laughed and ridiculed those who challenged the validity of that election are now silent as church mice on the subject.

And yet in spite of all the evidence to the contrary, they still "believe" in Biden's presidency, which means they're now forced to believe diametrically opposing things, believing they're both "truth".   "Truly their logic sometimes borders on the humorous."

We have an administration that's tyrannically imposed fascist policies on America.  Whether it involved covid, immigration, spending, energy dictates, domestic policies, foreign relation, and yet they call Trump a fascist, and he must be defeated to "save our democracy".  Yet, The Biden-Harris Regime’s Coup Against Constitutional America Is Leading to Civil War. And we not only see leftists embracing Biden, we're seeing the media and RINO's embrace an abject rejection of Donald Trump for a second term.  "Truly their logic sometimes borders on the humorous."

One of my pet peeves is this idiotic rationale Russia had to attack Ukraine because they were afraid of NATO, and was in dire need of creating "defensive depth".  How laughable is that?   NATO without America couldn't fight it's way out of a wet paper bag let alone attack Russia, and America certainly had no desire or intention of attacking Russia. 

•  Russia Was Scared, So They Had to Attack Ukraine! Part I
•  Russia Was Scared So They Had to Attack Ukraine, Part II

All the political chicanery that went on that's thrown up as an argument in favor of Putin's actions is a load of horsepucky.  That kind of stuff has always gone on by all the parties involved, but the fact remains Russia before this war of aggression against Ukraine was safer than it's ever been in it's entire history.    "Truly their logic sometimes borders on the humorous."

I have seven rules of geopolitics: 

1. First Rule of Geopolitics: All geopolitics is about four factors, geographics, demographics, economics, and that most elusive factor of all, the happiness factor.  
   
2. Second Rule of Geopolitics:  Everything is about the basics.  You have to be able to see issues at their foundational root levels in order to understand and fix complex problems.
   
3. Third Rule of Geopolitics:  History is everything since historical events lay the foundation for the social paradigms of nations, which have been in effect for centuries in most areas of the world.
   
4. Fourth Rule of Geopolitics:  People are like nations, and will act in their own best interests, unless they don't.  
5. Fifth Rule of Geopolitics: Nothing is ever as it appears.  Look behind the curtain, there's always something hidden. 
6. Sixth Rule of Geopolitics:  The patterns of life keep repeating over and over again. 
   
7. Seventh Rule of Geopolitics:  Everyone lies.    
   

I have a particular fondness for rules number two and three, as those lead to clarity as to the intention of world leaders.  

America is stunningly unique in all of world history.  We don't have the same type of foundational social paradigms as does the rest of the world.  We really don't understand theirs, at least as a surface understanding.  I can understand that lack of depth of understanding when it comes to the general population, but that's inexcusable for geopolitical analysts and world leaders.  

And understand, they absolutely don't understand American democracy, personal rights, and capitalism.  It's alien to them.  We really need to get that if we're to understand why they do the things the do, and the things we should and shouldn't do.  History is everything, and the founding fathers admonition of staying out of foreign conflicts was more prescient than we realized!  

These nations all had monarchs, absolute rulers, many of whom were empire builders, and that foundational social paradigm impacts the thinking of those nations and their leaders today, including Putin.  He loves Russia, Russian history, and make no mistake about it, he absolutely loves and desires the return of Russian imperialism.  However, his schemes are backfiring on him.  

Finland and Sweden have joined NATO, and not because they wish to attack Putin, but because they're afraid Putin will attack them, and I think their concern is justified.  Here's a history lesson for you:

The Great Northern War (1700–1721) was a conflict in which a coalition led by the Tsardom of Russia successfully contested the supremacy of the Swedish Empire in Northern, Central and Eastern Europe. The initial leaders of the anti-Swedish alliance were Peter I of Russia, Frederick IV of Denmark–Norway and Augustus II the Strong of Saxony–Poland–Lithuania. 

Frederick IV and Augustus II were defeated by Sweden, under Charles XII, and forced out of the alliance in 1700 and 1706 respectively, but rejoined it in 1709 after the defeat of Charles XII at the Battle of Poltava. George I of Great Britain and the Electorate of Hanover joined the coalition in 1714 for Hanover and in 1717 for Britain, and Frederick William I of Brandenburg-Prussia joined it in 1715.

Now Putin has deployed troops along Finland's border.  In spite of Russia's huge population, he's relying on mercenary troops, Ukraine has devastated Russia's Black Sea fleet with mass drone attacks, "and Russian forces continue to trade heavy losses for minimal gains on the Ukrainian battlefield."

•  Moscow’s Action in Ingushetia About Far More Than Counterterrorism
•  Russian Unity and Western Discord Converge in Putin’s Imagination

An article at Foreign Affairs entitled, The End of the Russian Idea, is a great history lesson and goes on to describe how Putin became a modern Russian Tsar, and why he's doing what he's doing, and his machinations that finally led to bringing total power into his hands alone.

Putin has merged the past to create his vision of the future.  By merging Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great with Joe Stalin, and the Russian Orthodox Church, which in the past was pretty much a organ of Tsarists governments, and had a strangle hold on Russian society in the past, all in order to create the same kind of relationship with Putin's government, with the same goal, a strangle hold on Russian society by persecuting all other Christian religions, all in violation of Article 18, Section 1 of the UN Charter on Human Rights.  

His goal is a vision of a return of Imperialist Russia.  He wants to pursue a policy of expansive Russian imperialism against all Russia's neighbors, including Poland, all of which Putin believes rightly belong to Russia based of past history, and has said so.  

Why Russia invaded Ukraine? .........This question continues to puzzle some Western analysts and scholars because of their inability to comprehend the true nature of Putin’s regime. The roots of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine lie in the Kremlin leader seeking to carve out a place in Russian history as the “gatherer of Russian lands” (alongside Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, and Joseph Stalin). This notion is a return to the imperial-nationalist denial of Ukraine’s existence and the belief in a pan-Russian people composed of “great,” “little,” and “white” Russians (Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians, respectively) (TASS, July 12, 2021; RBC, June 9, 2022; see EDM, October 3, 2022). Many Kremlin leaders believed that “Little Russians” were deluded into thinking they were Ukrainians by the Austrians and Poles before 1914, by Vladimir Lenin when he gave them a Soviet republic, and by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) since 1991 (Kremlin.ru, July 12, 2021; Pravda.ru, November 22, 2022).

So, based on all Putin's done, is doing, and has stated what he wants to do, why would anyone still buy into this insane argument about "fear of NATO, depth of defense" rationale to justify Putin's war of aggression against Ukraine?  "Truly their logic sometimes borders on the humorous."

So, back to the foundational question: "What do Politics, Cognitive Dissonance, and Eusapia Palladino Have in Common?"  An irrational desire to believe the unbelievable.